39689: Rulings on changing the intention of a prayer after starting it

Is it alright to change the intention of a prayer after beginning it?.

Praise be to Allaah.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen was asked about changing the
intention in prayer.

He replied:

Changing the intention means either changing it from one
specific thing to another, or from something general to something specific.
This is not correct, but if it is changing it from something specific to
something general, then there is nothing wrong with that.

For example:

Changing from one specific thing to another: A person wanted
to change the Sunnah prayer of Duha to the regular prayer of Fajr which he
had missed and wanted to make up. He said takbeer with the intention of
offering two rak’ahs of Duha, then he remembered that he had not offered the
regular prayer of Fajr, so he changed it to the regular prayer of Fajr. This
is not valid, because the regular prayer of Fajr is two rak'ahs for which he
should have had the intention from the beginning of the prayer.

Another example is a man who started to pray ‘Asr, but whilst
praying he remembered that he had not prayed Zuhr, so he intended this
prayer to be Zuhr. This is also not valid, because the intention for a
specific prayer must be there from the outset.

With regard to changing from something general to something
specific, such as if a person started to offer a general (i.e., naafil)
prayer, then he remembered that he had not prayed Fajr or the Sunnah of
Fajr, so he changed his intention to Fajr prayer or the Sunnah of Fajr –
this is also not valid.

But if he changes from something specific to something
general, such as if he starts praying with the intention that it is the
regular prayer of Fajr, then whilst he is praying he remembers that he has
already offered this prayer, in that case he may change his original
intention to the intention to simply offer a prayer.

Another example is that of a man who starts to offer an
obligatory prayer on his own, then a group (jamaa’ah) comes along, and he
wants to change his obligatory prayer to a naafil prayer so that he may cut
it short and offer two rak'ahs only, then offer the obligatory prayer with
the group. This is permissible, because he is changing from something
specific to something general.

So the principle is:

Changing from one specific thing to another is not valid;
changing from something general to something specific is not valid; changing
from something specific to something general is valid.

Is it permissible to change one’s intention from one specific
thing to another?

He replied: It is not permissible to change one’s intention
from one specific thing to another, or from something general to something
specific. Rather it is only permissible to change one's intention from
something specific to something general.

An example of the first, changing one's intention from one
specific thing to another, is changing the intention from praying Zuhr to
praying ‘Asr. In this case the Zuhr prayer is invalidated, because one has
turned away from it, and ha has not started ‘Asr prayer because that was not
the intention from the outset. In that case both prayers must be made up.

An example of the second, changing from something general to
something specific, is when a person starts to pray a general naafil prayer,
then turns the intention to a specific naafil prayer, then he changes it
into regular Sunnah prayer, i.e., a man starts to pray with a general
intention, then he wants to make it the regular Sunnah prayer of Zuhr – for
example. But this does not count as the regular Sunnah prayer, because he
did not have that intention from the outset.

An example of the third, changing from something specific to
something general, is when a person intends to offer the regular Sunnah
prayer of Maghrib, then he decides to make it a general Sunnah prayer. This
is valid and does not invalidate the prayer, because the intention to
perform a specific prayer includes the intention to offer prayer in general,
so if the specific intention is cancelled out, the general intention still
remains, but if he does that, then his regular Sunnah prayer does not count
because he has turned away from it.